Hundreds of people were crammed into the tiny cafeteria at Atherton Elementary School in Arlington on Tuesday night.

They waited there, shoulder to shoulder, at precinct caucuses for more than two hours to declare their support for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for president. People who attended said the mood grew heated as participants lost confidence in whether their votes would be counted.

They had every reason to worry. The Tarrant County Democratic Party confirmed Friday that it had received envelopes with blank forms for all three precinct caucuses at the school.

"At this point, we don't have any record that anything happened there," said Keith Annis, the county party's executive director.

answer your question. Onbama might have been robbed. The results were pretty close overall in Texas, where I live. I voted for Obama. The girls in my house voted for Clinton, so it was 2 to 1 in my house. My girls think it is their turn. I think it is time for the next generation to come in, as ours has already screwed things up enough. I think we need a younger girl if we're gonna have a girl. This one depends too much on her husband.

The Dallas Morning News gets hold of Clinton caucus "training materials," in which supporters are instructed to fight for procedural control of caucuses.

The materials say in part, "DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles."

It goes on to say, "If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serve as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.

"The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions."

As someone who has attended Texas pct conventions in the past, this is nothing new. The only thing new is the intensity because of the importance of the race and the energy the 2 candidates for pres. have created. In all likelihood, the paperwork will show up.

And because of the intensity of the event this year, the local press has been pounding us daily with horror stories of the pct. conventions. Gee, do you think they have an agenda of their own? Sure they do. And they intend to paint Democrats as undemocratic, disorganized, fools from now until election day. Do you want to support that?

So don't be taken taken in by the efforts of the local media to disparage Texas Democrats and the system. Is the system chaotic? Sometimes. It always has been. Is it unfair? Sometimes, but overall it has worked satisfactorily in the past.

When you have an open pct convention where almost all the new participants have no experience with the process, and you multiply the number of participants by 10 fold or more, and you have 2 presidential campaigns bucking for every advantage with out-of-state staff (so called observers) that are as inexperienced at Texas procedures as the voters, well, things go pretty crazy.

Oh, does our local, conservative media have their own agenda? Here is another example: The Star-Telegram has yet to print the raw vote totals for uncontested races from the Dem.& Rep. primaries. Why? Consider that every single Dem. candidate actually got more raw votes their Republican counterparts in every position in Tarrant County. THAT'S A HUGE STORY. And you don't see it in print.

26. My point is you are playing into the hands of the Conservative MEDIA

Thanks for the suggestion. But one letter to the editor is not the same as constant editorial slant that is reflected through the Conservative Media. I'm not saying there won't be letters about the raw vote totals- there probably will be- but it is not the same.

And you, by saying the system is a fraud, etc., play right into their hands.

The system was good enough for Democratic nominees past, including Bill Clinton (twice), so you can calm down. Credentials Committees will be going over the mistakes and problems very soon. This is always the case.

They were initial canvasses - and were corrected when the OFFICIAL count was made. No comparison.

Also, there weren't 100,000 votes discarded in LA. That was the highest possible (and I thought it was more like 70k, not 100k), presuming that EVERY independent voter screwed up his/her ballot.

Edit: And how on fucking Earth does that excuse what happened in TX? What is WRONG with people? What's wrong with pushing for a system wherein everybody who wants to vote gets to vote, and every vote is counted - REGARDLESS of whom they vote for?

The Star-Telegram's article is incendiary. The S-T is a very conservative newspaper and has an agenda of its own. If you don't believe me, pick up an edition and look for war news. They print very little. But you will read the economy is fabulous.

About the CAUCUS, THE ARTICLE could have mentioned that delegates were selected at it. Those delegates they will show up at the Senatorial District Convention May 29. And if the paperwork hasn't been found, or if it has been destroyed or is terribly flawed, you can bet the Credentials Committee will piece together a list of delegates selected at the pct convention so they can participate at the Sen. Convention.

Am I a fan of the caucus? Not necessarily. But to present the system as horribly flawed just isn't accurate.

I was going to ask if you felt all caucuses are undemocratic, but to be frank, you've put me off with your whining. If you want to do the dirty work of right wing media in sullying the Democratic Party, I guess no one can stop you.

Seems to me if you feel strongly, you'd take your case to the Texas Democratic Party.

Oh, they may ask why you did not complain earlier. Since you didn't complaint to them, most likely you are sore because your candidate did not do as well in the caucus as another. Your case will be a hard to sell.

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